Socket ratchet wrenches are extremely useful tools which have become almost universally used by professional as well as amateur mechanics, especially automobile and truck mechanics. Such conventional tools do have a drawback in starting a nut onto a threaded shaft or a short bolt into a threaded hole. Normally, the nut or bolt must be tightened sufficiently to provide back pressure to the ratchet, or else the ratchet won't operate. That is, when rotated backward (counter to the tightening direction, say, counterclockwise), the loose nut or bolt just travels (counterclockwise) with the socket, and a return (clockwise) of the wrench just puts the nut back where it started.
One prior art solution is to hand-spin the nut on the threaded shaft until it is finger-tight. Or to hand-turn the socket (the cylindrical replaceable element that receives the nut and fits into the square ratchet projection) to the same end. Lately, a thin "turner" device or disc has been provided. This is sandwiched between the socket and the ratchet wrench and is of such a diameter that it sticks out beyond the sides of the socket. Its knurled edge or rim is more easily hand-turned than is the smooth socket.
It has also been suggested to make special wrenches which drive the drive stud (which receives the socket) from inside the handle. See, e.g., U. S. Pat. Nos. 3,707,893; 4,258,594; 4,406,183; 4,406,184; 4,532,832 and 4,453,437. Or to provide an additional gear wrench to be used with the ratchet wrench to drive a socket as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,931.
Such prior approaches are expensive to make and tend to limit the usefulness of the primary socket wrench. They are often inconvenient to use since they require special set-up procedures and extra removal steps needed, e.g., to switch from driving the socket without pivoting the handle to the conventional mode of use.